This was stated by Edward Mayor, president of Stand With Ukraine (SWU), in an interview with Ukrinform.
“We had to make sure that France's initial support would ‘fit’ into the long term. But first of all, it was imperative to bring politicians to Ukraine, because practically none of them had been there before,” Mayor said.
According to him, in the spring of 2022, trips to Ukraine were organized for French parliamentarians, officials, mayors, and members of the European Parliament so that they could see the consequences of the Russian occupation with their own eyes.
"And it worked well. We went to Bucha, we went to Borodianka, to Irpin, and of course to Kyiv. In Bucha in April 2022, I accompanied the first delegation of French MEPs. It was literally two or three days after the liberation, when the bodies were still lying in a mass grave, and we saw how they were being removed. All the destroyed tanks on the main street, the smell of burning, the smell of death. I think it was really a turning point," he added.
The French activist said, in particular, that the trip to Borodianka by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo made a strong impression on her. Since then, closer exchanges between Paris and Kyiv have begun.
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“Before that, the Paris City Council made an unprecedented gesture of solidarity by voting to grant the city of Kyiv honorary citizenship of Paris. At the same time, the mayor of Paris signed a memorandum of friendship and cooperation between the cities in Kyiv,” Mayor emphasized.
As reported, Kyiv received four 112 kW generators from the Paris City Council, and four more such generators are expected to arrive in the near future.
Photo provided by the SWU Association
